Cultural Artifact 2 | The Words

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This weekend I watched The Words, originally shown atSundance Film Festival; a romantic, mysterious and suspenseful drama about ayoung writer by the name of Rory Jansen, played by Bradley Cooper, who finallyachieves his life goal of finally writing a book that a printing house willpublish. The only catch is that he didn't write it; instead he found it hiddeninside of an old briefcase that he finds in an old antique shop. As his eminencerises and his novel skyrockets in the bestselling ladder, the truth haunts himwhen the elderly, original writer confronts his actions.Typically I'm not one for romantic movies, given that they’reunrealistic and entail foreseen events that are idealized for the 21^stcentury couple. Instead, The Wordscaptures problems that every writer, publishing house, suffering relationshipand distressed pasts undergo. Redemption plays a glacial role in this movie. Lying and guilttransform into content, demanding viewer interaction with the morals involved.Through layers of history interpretation, the culture of the two faded intomore of a “let it be” mentality between Rory and the nameless “old man” (theoriginal writer), played by JeremyIrons. The old man at first comes off as threatening, like Christianity seemsto most people, but with time and workability, the words he was writing, forthe woman he loved counted for the both of them, for both of their losses. Ibelieve that this movie connects with the class because of the cultural pull-stringsthat the empire inhibits upon us to steal anything that is inspirational to us andcall it our own, instead of making things our own for God’s kingdom, as Crouchasserts in chapter one, page 25 of CultureMaking, “Culture is not just what human beings make of the world, it is notjust the way human beings make sense of the world; it is in fact part of the world that every human beinghas to make something of.”

1. Does enlightenment sometimes provide irrational decisions?2. In The Words, Rory had gone months with writer's block and printing houses denying him the approval of publishing his work. Why do we sometimes feel entitled to sin when things seem impossible?